Sanctuary Once Lost, Now Returned
by ArAnCaR No. 6
Summary: Sanctuary -noun- : Any place of refuge; asylumn. When you live your life with agony and expectations forever placed, where do you go for comfort? Sasuke has known only one since childhood. OOC AU No pairings


**Quick one-shot, just to let you guys know I'm not dead or anything (believe me, I've recieved that before)**

**Idea came to me when I was hugging my Dad, seriously. May or may not make sense.**

**Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: *folds arms and glares* You really don't know yet?**

**xXx**

If you ask any children, no matter their age, they will claim no attachment to their parents. Many teens would complain that they get no freedom, that their mothers are embarrasing and their fathers are foolish at times. It is with those thoughts that a drift is placed between parent and child, opening more and more and drifting like two grains of sand in a vast lake as the teen tries to obtain independance while the parent only wishes to protect their son or daughter.

Sasuke can honestly say, he never had a real attachment to his parents, yet he was aware that he was not like those countless children who deliberately left the embrace of their caretakers.

All they wished from him was to be strong, _like his brother_. Become a pipe that connects the clan to the village, _like his brother_. Be a shinobi prodigy, _like his brother_. For his entire childhood, it was the pressure from his parents to be like his brother that suffocated him, and that was what confused him. He's heard of a father supporting his son and telling him to do his best, he's heard of a mother smiling and hugging her little boy for comfort, yet why didn't that exist with his own parents? Was it different because they were Uchihas and the others were not? Was this how things worked in their family? Replacing gentle advice with sharp orders? Sometimes, he doubted the two adults he called 'Mother' and 'Father' were his parents at all.

He was such a fragile child, and that was what he guessed was what caused his father to ignore him so in favor of his brother. Kept out of all affairs with the clan because he was 'not ready', that was the excuse Itachi always gave him. He would pout in distress of being left out again, and all Itachi would do is smile lightly at his younger brother and embrace him as if asking for forgiveness.

The first time he did that was when Sasuke was five.

The young Uchiha was exceedingly puzzled, shocked even. Yet he could not deny the comforting warmth that seeped from his brother, Itachi's delicate scent surrounding him as he relaxed into those arms and hugged back. He felt reassured, all troubles easing out of his jumbled mind as he rested his forehead on his shoulder. He wondered, is this what a hug from a mother felt like? Is this what affection is? Sasuke found that he liked it, he liked having a little sanctuary in the arms of an actual person rather than in objects and possessions like many others do. It was akin to someone's own personal little hold on reality and place of safety. While most children cried for their parents, he went to his brother, who never failed to deliver the affection he so desperately lacked. Itachi was like both his mother and father in that sense, the 'security blanket' of a child alone and terrified in bed, and Sasuke loved him dearly for that.

That was the reason he cried when Itachi murdered the clan.

His tears were not for the family that kept him at bay, who simply saw a failing tool in him nor were they for his 'parents' who looked down on him with a sharp eye and heavy expectations that were unreachable for a child his age.

He cried for the sactuary he lost.

Even now, at age twelve, he felt like a child again, the way he was all those years ago. Silent, sad, and lonely, except he was no longer trying to live up to those expectations that his clan put up for him since birth, now he had to live up to the expectations of the entire world as 'the last' Uchiha in existance. He has to become a better shinobi to avoid 'tainting' the name of a family that always gave him the cold shoulder, he has to keep living as some sort of 'treasure' for the Leaf Village, who seem to brag so much at the prospect of housing the last Uchiha. It was all complete rubbish to him. They're blind, just like his 'parents'. And now, with him unintentionally catching Orochimaru's attention, the Land of Fire is no longer treating him like their pride and joy. Now he's being kept on watch for the safety of a greedy village, now he's being targeted for the plans of a villanous snake, now eyes are all on him for utterly unwanted reasons. Sasuke felt like an experiment: Happiness all around due to his forced success, and now hatred for his unintentional disgrace. He wouldn't be surprised if, like an experiment, he was discarded and forgotten the next day, the 'scientists' having found something more interesting and worthwhile to work on.

It was times like these that he desperately missed his sanctuary.

"Sasuke,"

Sasuke's dark midnight-blue hair moved silently as he raised his head up and from the tree he used as support in the secluded medow, his temporary hiding place from the world. The moonlight's soft rays casting every shard of grass and curved flower and rose in indigo akin to that of the color of his own locks against the light. The young child- for he was still so lost like one- said nothing as the speaker approached him, settling down besides the boy in silence just as a soft breeze rustled the lush green around them, crickets echoing their tune throughout the night. Sasuke already knew who it was, yet he was still unwilling to speak, to scream in anger or to simply break down in fear of driving his childhood sanctuary away. The other, seeing and sensing his distress, simply reached to gently pull the boy's head to rest against his shoulder. The twelve year-old immediately began to sob in relief, some of the inner turmoil that has piled over the years ceasing at that simple gesture of affection. Affection he still greatly craved. "Don't be sad," was all he said, "I wouldn't be so cruel as to leave you forever. What kind of brother would I be then?"

And just like that, he returned to the safety he thought he lost all those years ago.

There's no other love like the love for a brother.  
There's no other love like the love from a brother.  
~Astrid Alauda

**xXx**

**A/N: I was thinking (while hugging my Dad of course), that the embrace of a parent makes me feel like I am forever safe from the world, seriously. I feel so comfortable and all on my mind is put aside. I wanted to base this on Sasuke immediately, but seeing as his parents were pretty much jerks, I used Itachi as the 'parent' that keeps him safe and sound :)**

**I liked it, I really did, and I hope you guys did too.**

**Reviews are greatly appreciated :)**


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